Motivational Quotes

Character

The real character of a man is found out by his amusements.

- Reynolds, Sir Joshua

Best Quotes about Character

Clear conscience never fears midnight knocking.

Proverb, Chinese

Old age and sickness bring out the essential characteristics of a man.

Frankfurter, Felix

To have character is to be big enough to take life on.

Richards, Mary Caroline

The character of a man is known from his conversations.

Menander

Before you advise anyone Be yourself! reassess his character.

If all I'm remembered for is being a good basketball player, then I've done a bad job with the rest of my life.

Thomas, Isiah

Good character is not formed in a week or a month. It is created little by little, day by day. Protracted and patient effort is needed to develop good character.

Sivananda, Sri Swami

Noble character is best appreciated in those ages in which it can most readily develop.

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

Character - the willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life - is the source from which self respect springs.

Joan Didion

10.

For character too is a process and an unfolding... among our valued friends is there not someone or other who is a little too self confident and disdainful; whose distinguished mind is a little spotted with commonness; who is a little pinched here and protuberant there with native prejudices; or whose better energies are liable to lapse down the wrong channel under the influence of transient solicitations?

Eliot, George

11.

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.

Oscar Levant

12.

Deep down, I'm pretty superficial.

Gardner, Ava

13.

It is not what he had, or even what he does which expresses the worth of a man, but what he is.

Amiel, Henri Frederic

14.

I have conquered an empire but I have not been able to conquer myself.

Peter The Great

15.

There's a fine line between character building and soul destroying.

Hay, Colin

16.

Character is to man what carbon is to steel.

Hill, Napoleon

17.

The formation of one's character ought to be everyone's chief aim.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

18.

A man with a so-called character is often a simple piece of mechanism; he has often only one point of view for the extremely complicated relationships of life.

Strindberg, J. August

19.

Our character...is an omen of our destiny, and the more integrity we have and keep, the simpler and nobler that destiny is likely to be.

George Santayana

20.

I take it as a man's duty to restrain himself.

Lois McMaster Bujold

21.

One can acquire everything in solitude - except character.

Marie Henri Beyle

22.

Character is the sum and total of a person's choices.

Fitzwater, P. B.

23.

Character is always lost when a high ideal is sacrificed on the altar of conformity and popularity.

24.

The superior man will watch over himself when he is alone. He examines his heart that there may be nothing wrong there, and that he may have no cause of dissatisfaction with himself.

Confucius

25.

The only way to compel men to speak good of us is to do it.

Voltaire

26.

Few people can distinguish the genuinely good from the reverse.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

27.

Pity the man who has a character to support --it is worse than a large family -- he is silent poor indeed.

Thoreau, Henry David

28.

He that has light within his own clear breast may sit in the center, and enjoy bright day: But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts benighted walks under the mid-day sun;

Milton, John

29.

Everyone has three characters, that which they exhibit, that which they have, and that which they think they have.

Karr, Alphonse

30.

How difficult it is to save the bark of reputation from the rocks of ignorance.

Petrarch, Francesco

31.

You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips.

Goldsmith, Oliver

32.

It is better for the development of character and contentment to do certain things badly for yourself than to have them done better for you by someone else.

33.

Reputation is only a candle, of wavering and uncertain flame, and easily blown out, but it is the light by which the world looks for and finds merit.

Lowell, James Russell

34.

The lord will not hold back the promises, even if the person who makes them is not worthy.

35.

Men show their character in nothing more clearly than what they think laughable.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

36.

Everyone has the obligation to ponder well his own specific traits of character. He must also regulate them adequately and not wonder whether someone else's traits might suit him better. The more definitely his own a man's character is, the better it fits him.

Cicero

37.

You can't go around hoping that most people have sterling moral characters. The most you can hope for is that people will pretend that they do.

Lebowitz, Fran

38.

The best index to a person's character is (a) how he treats people who can't do him any good, and (b) how he treats people who can't fight back.

Buren, Abigail Van

39.

There is never a better measure of what a person is than what he does when he is absolutely free to choose.

Bulger, William M.

40.

That which we call character is a reserved force which acts directly by presence, and without means. It is conceived of as a certain undemonstrable force, a familiar or genius, by whose impulses the man is guided, but whose counsels he cannot impart.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

41.

It takes a great deal of character strength to apologize quickly out of one's heart rather than out of pity. A person must possess himself and have a deep sense of security in fundamental principles and values in order to genuinely apologize.

Covey, Stephen R.

42.

A man's character is the reality of himself; his reputation, the opinion others have formed about him; character resides in him, reputation in other people; that is the substance, this is the shadow.

Beecher, Henry Ward

43.

In attempts to improve your character, know what is in your power and what is beyond it.

Francis Thompson

44.

Testimony is like an arrow shot from a long bow and the force of it depends on the strength of the arm from which it was shot. Argument is like a bullet fired from a gun and has equal force even when issued from a child.

45.

Character builds slowly, but it can be torn down with incredible swiftness.

Baldwin, Faith

46.

It isn't the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog, that counts.

Howell, Harry

47.

Put more trust in nobility of character than in an oath.

Solon

48.

Character is what you know you are, not what others think you have.

Collins, Marva

49.

Not to be cheered by praise, not to be grieved by blame, but to know thoroughly ones own virtues or powers are the characteristics of an excellent man.

Pandita, Saskya

50.

Those who cross the sea change only the climate, not their character.

Horace